A new pill helps people with hard-to-treat pancreatic cancer live longer
A new medicine called daraxonrasib helped people with advanced pancreatic cancer live longer than standard chemotherapy. In a trial of 500 patients whose cancer had already come back, the drug beat chemotherapy on how long people lived and how long the cancer stayed in check.
Why it matters
Pancreatic cancer that has spread is one of the deadliest cancers, and once first treatments stop working, patients have very few good options. This drug blocks a faulty protein signal (called RAS) that drives most of these tumours, so it targets the cancer in a new way. If later checks confirm the result, it could become a real choice for people who currently have almost none. The drug is still being studied, so doctors will want to see the full safety details.
Who's behind it: E. M. O'Reilly and colleagues, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and international partners. Funded by Revolution Medicines, the company that makes the drug.
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